Beekeeper, Question

witler

Ten Pointer
I am sure that you may have heard about the loss of bees that is happening across our country. I have heard different reports of the loss. It appears that Commercial Beekeepers are having an approx. 62% loss, with hobbyist are seeing around 40% loss. We are a small outfit, we lost 10 of our 12 hives.
I have not heard of a cause for this problem.
If anyone here has info, please share it.
 
jhwilli2

jhwilli2

Eight Pointer
witler said:
I am sure that you may have heard about the loss of bees that is happening across our country. I have heard different reports of the loss. It appears that Commercial Beekeepers are having an approx. 62% loss, with hobbyist are seeing around 40% loss. We are a small outfit, we lost 10 of our 12 hives.
I have not heard of a cause for this problem.
If anyone here has info, please share it.
Click to expand...
did you treat for mites?
 
LR308

LR308

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
We lost both of our hives, but I would chalk ours up to inexperience. 2024 was our first year keeping bees. Maybe @7mm-08 has some insight?
 

Lastfling

Six Pointer
I went out last year with 5 hives and am headed into this year with those same 5 hives. My thoughts were similar to that mentioned - mites. Another thought is did they have sufficient stores headed into winter to avoid starvation.
 

witler

Ten Pointer
Lastfling said:
I went out last year with 5 hives and am headed into this year with those same 5 hives. My thoughts were similar to that mentioned - mites. Another thought is did they have sufficient stores headed into winter to avoid starvation.
Click to expand...
Yes, they had more than enough food. If the reports are correct I doubt that Commercial Beekeepers would loose 62% of their bees due to lack of food or not treating for mites.
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I’m not aware of any new killing off of the bees, but I do try to live in my own bubble.

There is lots of old info with high die off numbers still floating around on the internet from research papers and articles that have been published old forum topics and YouTube videos.

Just like any other pandemic, CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), mites (Varroa Distructor) and SHB (Small Hive Beetle) made big entrance. While they are all real problems to be mindful of and manage, they arnt quite as frightening as they were when they were new and unknown.

Mites came in the scene from Asia in the late 80s.

CCD is really just a delayed result of unchecked mites. For a long time it was a mystery why bees were just dying in such great numbers until the two were linked together. The stats you stated sound like old CCD fatality rates.

The SHB came to America from Africa in the mid 90s.

SHB can make a mess out of a hive if they over run it. For the most part a strong hive will keep them in check. You’d know it if you got slimed and SHB destroyed the hive.

Wax Moths will spin cocoons all over the hive after the wax worms (think fishing bait wax worms) crawl all through the comb and will destroy everything and leave nothing but silk and destruction in their wake. They even damage the wood frames and hive bodies.

Starvation is always a real possibility. If your bees died over the winter and were found in a cluster with bees head first in the cells, I’d highly suspect starvation. Bees are supposed to have honey to stay clustered on and slowly move through as a cluster all winter, almost hibernation-like. We have some weird winters with plenty of warm days. Bees need more food when they are active, and while you may see some pollen here and there coming in on a warm winter day, they are not bringing in nectar. They are eating their stores faster than bees in Canada do.

Lastly I’ll throw out pesticides/insecticides. Kinda the wrong time of year, but some pesticides will kill a whole hive as the foragers finger the neighbors Ag field that they sprayed, or the nice old man next door putting Sevin on his tomatoes and squash. That nice old man could clean you out with his cute little garden if the bees pick it up with nectar and pollen and bring it back and feed it to the hive.

I never saw, but hear about field mice killing a winter hive. I suspect the hive is already in trouble and the mouse just moved in, took up residence and made a mess.

Skunks will eat bees as they come out the entrances. I have lots of skunks. It doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Probably wasn’t a bear or you’d have said so.

And this killer hornet things from a couple years ago?

My money is on starvation if it was between October and March.
 
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7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Did a little searching and came up with nothing new and alarming. Can you link some of these reports? I’d be curious if they are recent stats.
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I actually listened to a podcast last night about it but fell asleep before they got into it. If you want to take a good nap try Beekeepers Corner Podcast. It’s like a green noise sound machine.
 

Steelshot

Eight Pointer
Prolonged low concentration pesticide contact in wax. Slowly kills them. Saw a study recently that showed wax holding pesticides eventually builds up to toxic levels being the comb is never removed from the hive in large quantities. I think it was a university of Georgia study. I’ll link it when I find it again
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
He starts out talking about this pretty early, but talks about Randy Oliver’s prediction of a large scale die off around the 12 minute mark.

podcasts.apple.com

BKCorner Episode 261 - Fifty Fifty

Podcast Episode · The Beekeeper's Corner Beekeeping Podcast · 03/02/2025 · 1h 23m
podcasts.apple.com podcasts.apple.com
 
bowtoot

bowtoot

Ten Pointer
Contributor
We have two hives that survived from last year so far. Over the last 4 years, I have lost quite a few. I split one yesterday that was a little spicey, it had been a swarm capture last year. The queen is laying an awesome pattern, but spicey.

Side question. Have you guys have had good luck with the plastic foundation? I have used it a little, but always seem to do better with wax.
 

SharpShooter

Ten Pointer
I’ve tried plastic but didn’t get the results I was hoping for. I think last time I tried with 2 hives neither one would really draw out comb on the plastic foundation right. It was always grace comb across the plastic. It took too much time and management for me. I don’t have issues with wax foundation.
 
wncdeerhunter

wncdeerhunter

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
bowtoot said:
We have two hives that survived from last year so far. Over the last 4 years, I have lost quite a few. I split one yesterday that was a little spicey, it had been a swarm capture last year. The queen is laying an awesome pattern, but spicey.

Side question. Have you guys have had good luck with the plastic foundation? I have used it a little, but always seem to do better with wax.
Click to expand...
We use plastic almost exclusively - seems easier to work with. We lost all 3 hives early last fall/winter - they got neglected with Helene and all. Going to start wtih 3 nucs this year and see if we can keep them alive
 

waitup

Four Pointer
I use plastic. Got my first 2 hives as nuc's last spring. Never tested or treated for mites, and both hives still kicking today. One thing I read that seems to hold true is that some plastic foundation doesn't have enough wax and that is what they don't like. Folks have said they had better luck after adding a little more wax to it.
 

witler

Ten Pointer
As mentioned we use plastic, have an old crock pot that we melt wax in to add to foundation. Use a 4 or 6 inch paint roller and roll on melted wax, works well.
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I have blocks of rendered wax. I’ve never had trouble with the plastic, but I suspect you could just rub it with a wax block like a cheese grater.
 
luckybuck

luckybuck

Old Mossy Horns
Our bees have wintered over fine but we do feed in the winter months especially when it is really cold. Today they were all out gathering pollen and drinking like crazy. Our biggest problem the last two years was honey that crystallized on the early takes. I have heard people come up with every reason as to why the honey crystallized so quickly and almost everyone around us had the same problems and blamed it on canola. And a couple of old timers said it was because of liquor stills lol...
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
If it was just your early honey, you probably had a lot of sugar syrup honey left from winter or late winter/early spring feedings left in the boxes.
 
luckybuck

luckybuck

Old Mossy Horns
7mm-08 said:
If it was just your early honey, you probably had a lot of sugar syrup honey left from winter or late winter/early spring feedings left in the boxes.
Click to expand...
The thing was we didn't feed sugar the past two winters because they had tons of stored honey and it never got cold all winter.
 
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